Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Short Stories

Grab a cup of cocoa and listen to this heartwarming, hilarious tale of a young couple who desperately want to get each other the "perfect" Christmas gift.

When Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) published Three Stories and 10 Poems in 1923, he was 24, a wounded veteran of the Great War, and still three years away from publishing his debut novel (The Sun Also Rises). So the "Three Stories" give us a unique look into Hemingway's developing writing skills and his very particular areas of creative interest.

Guy de Maupassant, French master of the short story, had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

What would you do in the name of revenge? In The Cask of Amontillado, our narrator Montresor feels that the pompous Fortunado has insulted him one too many times. Join us as Motresor takes advantage of his enemy's love of wine to exact an unspeakable revenge.

Anna Katherine Green (1846-1935) was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and has been called “the mother of the detective novel”. Her style would influence other writers such as Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Doctor, His Wife and the Clock is the sixth title in her mystery series and is more a novelette compared to her other books. The story features one of her reoccurring characters, Ebenezer Gryce, who is called in to find out who killed a well-loved and respected citizen in a small community where he had no enemies to speak of.

The story from which this collection takes its title describes the adventures of an imaginative boy who discovers an omnibus that enables him to travel to the past in the company of famous historical personages. When at his invitation, an incredulous adult accompanies him on a journey, the astonishing new vistas unfolding alarm the security-conscious older man, who wishes himself back in his comfortable suburban home.

Guy de Maupassant is widely regarded as the father of the modern short story. As his 13 volumes of short stories attest, he was a prolific writer of this form. He had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centred on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.

Bliss deals with the disillusionment of a devoted wife when she is presented with evidence of her husband's infidelity.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849), The Raven Edition, presents his complete literary output in five volumes. Although best known for his works of macabre fiction, Poe also had a deep interest in scientific discovery and speculative philosophy. This volume contains stories about wild and wonderful experiments and other objects of public curiosity, and essays about language and thought.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads "The Monstrance" from The Angels of Mons by Arthur Machen, detailing the agony of a German soldier driven mad by the vision of an atrocity he committed earlier in the war. WWI was going badly for the English, and Machen’s tales of a supernatural power on the side of the embattled British troops brought hope to the nation.

Spend your next 30 minutes traveling to a future where first adopters have the most advanced robot butlers or where everyone has a superpower - except the young man you just met. Or perhaps you prefer a good hard-boiled detective story or one about a hardscrabble life in the Australian outback.

Katherine Mansfield was a master of the short story. With characters in psychological struggles resulting in a major life shift or revelation, her style influenced contemporary and friend Virginia Woolf as well as modern authors including Alice Munro. These stories were written between 1920 and 1921, while she was ill with tuberculosis. She died in 1923 at the age of 34. Fifteen stories are included in this recording.

The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, was first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf Coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. It is widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism with themes that are still relevant today.

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) presents his complete literary output in five volumes. The second volume contains 22 stories, which illustrate the author's fascination with the macabre, the unexpected, and the terrifying.

In this final book of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber's series featuring the indomitable Emma McChesney, Emma's newly married son Jock has relocated to Chicago, leaving Emma an empty-nester. Her secret romance and pending nuptials stall when their company is thrown into an uproar at the height of the selling season. To defeat her long-time nemesis and take the T.A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company international, the always-competitive Emma sails off on a whirlwind tour of South America.

Jack London was one of the most prolific and imaginative writers America has ever produced. This collection includes eight masterpieces that showcase London's literary versatility and his genius at creating memorable, one-of-a-kind characters: "Moon-Face" - a study of extreme motiveless antipathy; "The Leopard-Man's Story" - passion and mayhem under the big top; "Local Color" - a wandering polymath might be too smart for his own good; "The Minions of Midas" - a tale of terrorism perhaps more disturbing today than it was 100 years ago; and much more.

When a group of men crash on the surface of an alien planet, they are hemmed in on every side by a deadly, impenetrable bog and attacked by an unknown, unseen enemy.

When Lord Arthur learns of his awful destiny, how will he deal with the consequences? As this is Wilde, it's not what you might expect.

Everything in the world revolves around just him. Or does it? A moral fable on delusions of self-importance. First published 1888 in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

A moral fable on true and fake friendship. Hugh the Miller is little Hans's best friend...or is he? First published in 1888 in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.